Wood is Good for REDD+!

Abstract

My Home my life Program—PMCMV (from Portuguese: Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida) is a Brazilian Federal Government initiative to reduce country’s housing deficit. The Ministry of Cities is responsible for the program. The use of wood in housing construction, notoriously those from native species, is regulated by Ministry of Environment. By Decree 318/2014 from Ministry of Cities and Decree 27/2014 from Ministry of Environment, the use of close to 50 different native species’ Dead Wood and Harvested Wood Products from sustainable sources became eligible for appliance within My Home My Life Program—PMCMV at Northern region—Amazon region. Housing deficit within the region is estimate between 500,000 and 5 million units considering 2014–2030 time frame. Comparing traditional cement–iron models as baseline scenario and the approved wood model as Smart Growth using IPCC 2006 guidelines, industrial (construction) and AFOLU (REDD, REDD+ and HWP) sectors can generate carbon credits from this technological development influence. This project activity can be included within Brazilian voluntary emission’s reduction goals for Amazon region, REDD and REDD+. The inclusion of PMCMV wood housing project activity could generate between 40 million and 400 million tCO2e reductions depending on methodological approach, between 7 and 70% of Brazilian voluntary REDD and REDD+ goals for Amazon region. To make this potential effective, the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Cities need to implement an adequate MRV methodology for managing carbon along wood houses production chain and develop a PoA project document. At the Brazilian Amazon, Federal Government is promoting the concept that: Wood is Good for REDD!